A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

US Pressure Adds to the Suffering in Cuba’s Worst Economic Crisis  (The New Humanitarian)

Cuba is on the brink of a total humanitarian collapse as its people bear the brunt of cascading crises driven by the Trump administration’s decision to block Venezuelan oil shipments to the island. It is a crisis compounded by a decades-long US embargo and years of economic mismanagement. The power blackouts which previously lasted for 12 to 14 hours now exceed 20 hours, thus further crippling hospitals, food storage, and water systems. Without new fuel deliveries, the island might reach complete fuel depletion this month amidst its worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

Residents skip meals, store water in buckets during brief windows of electricity, and navigate streets filled with uncollected garbage. The suffering is widely described by those living it as worse than the hardships inflicted by the post-Soviet economic collapse of the 1990s. Diaspora networks and informal solidarity groups have stepped in to deliver food and medicine, but the Cuban government’s bureaucracy, repression of independent initiatives, and restrictions on NGOs make sustained aid support extremely difficult to obtain. And as international assistance remains far below what is needed, many Cubans view emigration as the only real way out.

READ | The Changing Face of the Global Humanitarian Crisis: Gender, Climate Change, and Humanitarian Interventions

Newly Launched Ocean Equity Index Measures Justice At-Sea (Mongabay)

A team of 27 researchers developed and published a new Ocean Equity Index, which was launched in a recent issue of Nature. The index measures the equity of ocean initiatives by using 12 criteria across three core equity types: recognitional, procedural, and distributional. It is a tool can be used by governments, corporations, and Indigenous or community groups to score projects on criteria including human rights, transparency, inclusion, and harm assessment.

The new index was tested on six real-world ocean initiatives, ranging from a local Tanzanian fish-drying project to a multinational intergovernmental declaration, producing an average equity score of 68% out of 100% in projects surveyed. The authors envision the measure becoming a global yardstick with the potential to empower marginalized communities as a “tool of resistance” against harmful operations in their areas.

READ | Climate and Coastal Adaptation: The Need for Urgent Planning

A Rising Number of Sinkholes Strains Agricultural Livelihoods in Turkey (The Guardian)

Turkey’s Konya region has experienced a dramatic surge in sinkholes, with nearly 700 of them appearing in farmland and driving a number of related structural collapses that now approaches 3,000. Konya rests on a foundation of limestone and soluble rock, making it particularly geologically vulnerable. Decades of intensive agriculture and heavy groundwater extraction have accelerated the problem, since underground cavities lose their structural support and collapse as water tables drop.

The human and economic toll on farmers of the growing sinkhole crisis is severe. Konya farmer Fatih Şık has had two sinkholes open up on his land, swallowing a beetroot field that was worth roughly $23,000 a year and promising an estimated one million dollars in repairs with no support from the government After scientists reportedly told local residents that the area is no longer livable, farmers and experts view a fundamental shift in agricultural practices as the only viable long-term solution. Some of them are reintroducing low-water crops like hemp, while others are reviving ancient dry-farming techniques that use no irrigation at all.

READ | Agriculture’s Achilles’ Heel: Water Insecurity Is the Greatest Threat to Sustaining Global Food Production